1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a skin potential measuring sensor which comprises a measuring electrode with a signal transfer attachment, to be placed on the skin.
2. Description of Related Art
When measuring skin potential and transferring the measured values analogically, a special wire is required to minimize capacitative and inductive interference induced from the surroundings. If unshielded electrode cabling is used, error signals from interfering electromagnetic sources will be induced to the wires. The error signals can be stronger than the actual skin potential signal. Each wire should therefore be individually screened against interference, which in turn causes the wiring system to become complicated, heavy and expensive. Moving and bending a shielded wire will generate electrical noise when the wire shield moves in relation to the wire conductor and the insulation material (microphonism of the wire). When a high impedance signal is transferred inside a long cable, the resistance, capacitance and inductance of the cable will cause change to the amplitude of the signal and the response frequency. Different skin potential signals can also interfere with one another in the wiring system (crosstalk).
The object of the invention is to provide a skin potential measuring sensor, with which the present disadvantages related to skin potential measuring sensors, and especially problems due to error signals and screening, will be eliminated. In particular, the object of the invention is to provide a skin potential measuring sensor, which sensor can directly be connected to a digital data processing system via a digital data transmission system.
The object of the invention is accomplished by means of a skin potential measuring sensor, the characteristics of which are set forth in the claims.
In a skin potential measuring sensor according to the invention, the elements required for measuring, processing and digitizing the signal from the measuring electrode are located close to the electrode. By placing the signal measuring, processing and digitizing elements into close vicinity of the measuring electrode, according to the invention, the measured analogic skin potential signal can be converted into a digital signal without any transfer wires. When the measurement is taken directly from the electrode, a numeric signal can reliably be transferred inside the conventional wires and the errors caused by the wires can be eliminated. Thus, no special wires are needed.
The signal transfer element has been designed to transfer the measured signal in a digital form through the data transmission system to the main processor. Thus, the skin potential sensor can directly be connected to a digital data processing system.
In one embodiment of the invention, the system is arranged so that the sampling of the measuring signals from different sensors is synchronous. The simultaneity makes numeric calculation (i.e. adding and subtraction) of different signals possible. Further numeric processing makes it possible to form new signals through calculations (without additional electronics) from measured signals from different sensors. If the sampling is not synchronous, the calculated signal may be significantly distorted.